San Ramon Valley letters: Romo got lucky on that last pitch

I am not buying the Giants and media description of the game-ending pitch. Carl Steward of the Bay Area News Group said Romo threw slider after slider, "slyly setting up the final pitch ..."

That may be true, but Steward then admits, "Then Romo tossed it, a beauty, right down the middle but such an absolute shock to the best pure hitter in the game that he, too, was left frozen in time ..."

It was a "beauty" all right, for the hitter. Manager Bochy said, "He just knew that Cabrera was looking for a slider, and he commands the fastball so well, he just located it." In the middle of the freaking strike zone!? If he thought Cabrera was looking for a slider, which is apparently correct, he should have LOCATED it in the low outside corner OF THE STRIKE ZONE so Cabrera would mistake it for a slider that was going to be a ball and take it.

The key skill of great hitters is to almost always make a pitcher pay for a mistake pitch. I have no complaint with the setup or use of a fastball instead of a slider, but don't insult my intelligence by trying to tell me anyone on the Giants wanted that final strike to be in the middle of the strike zone. The Giants and media want the story to be of Romo the great hero. He did great otherwise, but that particular pitch may have been the worst of his career and on that pitch's location, Romo was not the great hero, he was the goat who got miraculously saved by the greater goat: Cabrera.

Don't Hollywood it up. The Giants did great overall, but the true story of that particular pitch happens to be the story of a great batter doing lousy, not a great pitcher doing great.

I read with sadness but no surprise the sentence handed down to David Rosen for the killing of two innocent people. His lawyer indicated he did not intend to "kill anybody". However, whatever his intent a husband and father and a daughter and sister are lost to a family forever ... not for three years, not for eight years, but forever.

Is justice served when a privileged, theft-prone, "troubled" 17-year-old with a well-paid attorney is permitted to plea as a juvenile to minimize his sentence and accountability? I think not. Was this the intent of laws designed to protect youthful offenders? I hope not.

No sentence can return what has been lost to the Nuri family but such minimal punishment for such a monumental crime has given Rosen another "slap on the wrist" and sends a disturbing message to young people.

Dorothy Nicholas

Livermore

East Bay parks officials have shirked duty

I am writing to express my utter dismay that the East Bay Regional Park District would allow law enforcement agencies to use Del Valle Regional Park as a staging area for "Urban Shield."

The arroyo staging area and adjacent parkland was closed to public use Oct. 26 through Oct. 29 while law enforcement agencies conducted urban warfare training including gunfire, explosions and attack dogs. Park District officials have lost their way and seem to have forgotten their role as stewards of the land. Urban warfare training is NOT compatible with stewardship of the land with which they have been entrusted. Over the weekend, I could hear gunfire and explosions from this activity more than six miles away.

Perhaps the Park District needs to review their mission statement from their website. "The District's mission is to acquire, preserve, protect and operate regional parklands ... The goal of the District is to conserve and enhance important resource values such as vegetation, wildlife and water to ensure that natural parkland ecosystems are maintained in a healthy and productive condition."

Shame on the Park District.

Keith Rothenberg

Livermore

Something fishy about Tesla plant

We all know about the billions in public money wasted on Solyndra, other bankrupt solar makers and two bankrupt battery makers for electric cars.

It now seems that a half-billion of our money has been spent on electric carmaker Tesla, which took over the former Nummi plant in Fremont. I now hear that Tesla, although receiving government money, won't hire former Nummi workers, despite the fact that they are trained and experienced in manufacturing, because they were members of the United Auto Workers union.

Is this the same government that spent $50 billion or more to save General Motors and gave it to the same UAW? Something is rotten a whole lot closer than Denmark. Could it be that the owner of Tesla is a big donor to President Obama?

How about some investigative journalism on this?

Russ Greenlaw

Livermore

Red states are the enemies of our freedoms

In my lifetime, there have been five major wars and eight smaller confrontations in which we have lost 102,038 brave heroes (so far). Every time I ask why we fight, the answer is always the same: "We fight to protect our values, our freedoms, our rights!"

I've never seen a North Korean try to infuse the Bible into our public institutions. I've never heard of a North Vietnamese citizen trying to dictate my daughter's reproductive decisions. Or expect her to work for less than a man. No one from Afghanistan has ever tried to suppress the minority vote in this country. And I have never seen an Iraqi come here and try to dismantle some of the very programs that have helped America become the world's foremost destination. Not one of these countries has tried any of these things, but some Republicans are making their mark with an all-out assault on these very "rights." So where do we send the troops next to "protect our rights?" Kansas?

Kevin S Bryant

Dublin

UC should support its lab retirees

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is providing presentations in Tracy on Nov. 8 to explain medical plan open enrollment options for its retirees.

Unfortunately, these presentations will only be attended by a small percent of the more than 5,000 retirees. The Livermore Laboratory Retirees' Association has made a simple request that these presentations and, importantly, the retiree questions and answers, be video-recorded and provided on the Internet to be available to retirees who cannot attend the presentations. That request has been denied despite the fact the laboratory has a large media group that can easily make this happen.

This is a continuation of the indifference shown to retiree concerns since new management took over the laboratory. Not once in recent years have retirees been included in any planning process relating to retiree benefits. The current laboratory management's attitude is in stark contrast to that which existed when the lab was run solely by the University of California. However, the university remains a major partner in the corporation that now manages the laboratory. It's time for the university to step up and support its own retirees.